Healing Eden

by Rhenna Morgan

  On reflex, he reached for his strategos’ link and slammed against the mental equivalent of a marble wall. He stopped at the massive Blackwood entry with its opaque glass insets, and tucked his chin tight to his chest. Now wasn’t the time to look back. As surreal as Falon’s visit might have been, his message was likely accurate. Reese was dead. Better to focus on his future, the key to which lay on the other side of these doors.

  He lifted his hand to knock, then hesitated. Angus might be a short-tempered politician, but his warning had merit. He might be unrecognizable to most after so many years out of the public eye, but servants were a gossiping lot and no one else would answer the door. He reached out through his link to Serena. “You have a lovely home. Are you going to continue the cold shoulder? Or come open your door and welcome me inside?”

  No answer. If anything a chill pushed down the link to sting the back of his head, but her presence hustled within the house.

  He tucked his hands into the pockets of his black overcoat and waited. Not one soul wandered the courtyard, the pretty details locked in place like some landscape on a wall.

  The door jerked opened and the knocker at its center clattered against the wood.

  “Are you crazy?” Serena grasped him by the forearm and glanced over her shoulder. She tugged him past the entry and through a black and white marble foyer to a receiving room off to one side. “Warriors are all over the place looking for you and they’ve got a damned good rendering to go with it.”

  She strode to an end table situated between two wingback chairs covered in a pale plum fabric and flicked her hand toward the door, shutting it with a mental push. With quick fingers, she sorted a stack of papers and thrust one in his direction. “Whoever drew it is surprisingly good. See for yourself.”

  The paper wavered from the tremor in her hand.

  “You’re worried about me?” He strolled forward. It was a comfortable room, easy and warm with its creams and purple accents. Serena fit right in with her loose, flowing pants and tunic. The dusky rose color matched the slight flush on her cheeks.

  She thrust the parchment toward him again. “Worried about my connection to you is more like it. If I’m nothing more than a fuck, I’d prefer to keep my distance.”

  He took the drawing. The hair was certainly right. Past his shoulders and sporting the waves he hated. They’d nailed the angles of his face and the color of his eyes, but they’d gone a bit overboard with the maniacal expression.

  No, his identity was no longer a secret. Not with this floating around. And he’d definitely dug a hole for himself with Serena. She pulsed with a nearly tangible energy, the lines of her neck so taut it looked painful. If he wanted to lure her across party lines and solidify her beside him and the rebellion, he’d have to do something big. Something he’d never done before.

  He sat the flyer atop a haphazard stack of papers. He stepped closer, not enough to touch, but enough to enter her space. “I was wrong.” He held her stare, the taste of his words foreign and uncomfortable on his tongue.

  Quiet settled, broken only by muffled movements and voices in the rooms beyond. The scent of citrus and crisp linens hung in the air, more noticeable in the stillness. The nerves along his spine bristled and the urge to pace beat at his feet.

  He waited.

  And waited.

  She met him eye to eye without a quaver. An iron will behind a deceptively beautiful woman. Few men could hold themselves with such dignity. The only woman he’d known to match her strength was his grandmother. Maybe he’d been wrong in his assessment of Serena.

  Sharp footsteps sounded on the tiles beyond.

  Serena’s head snapped toward the door and her gaze sharpened. “Stay to the far corner of the room and mask yourself.”

  Maxis heeded her directive and spread his senses along the home’s perimeter. The patterns were the same. The courtyard was bare, the same number of bodies moving at a steady pace around the house.

  Serena situated herself in one of the chairs and picked up the drawing, making an overblown act of studying Maxis’ image.

  The door opened.

  “Put those down.” The terse command came from a tall, slender man with shoulder-length salt and pepper hair tied back in a formal queue. He strode to the table and plucked the drawing from her fingers. “You know better than to meddle in my affairs.”

  Serena looked up, eyes wide with sickening innocence.

  Maxis stifled a cough.

  “I’m sorry, father.” Not the least bit of hesitation, not even a flinch. “I only stopped to study the image. Who is it?”

  “No one you need to know about.” Her father tucked the stack of papers into a leather satchel, one worn enough to indicate a life of actual work. If his trousers, boots and overcoat were any indicator, he worked as a merchant, and a pretty successful one at that.

  “Is he dangerous? I’ve never seen the malran post such a warning.”

  “It’s nothing to concern yourself with. Just a political matter you wouldn’t understand.” He turned for the door. “Tell your mother to arrange for dinner at the customary time. Your brother and I will be bringing home a few contacts from work.”

  The door clacked shut behind him, rattling the frame.

  Selena held her place, back straight and frowning.

  Maxis dropped his mask. “You handled that well.”

  His voice seemed to shake whatever haze held her. She shrugged and pushed from her seat. “He’s a busy man.”

  “He’s a fool.” Maxis prowled across the thick gray carpets, the glimpse into Serena’s life brewing an urge he couldn’t quite wrap his head around. As if he needed to shield her, or at least snap something, or someone, in two. “He has no clue of the intellect behind your pretty face, does he?”

  For the first time since he’d met her, the cool facade faltered. “No.” Her expression hardened and she pierced him with her startling blue stare. “And neither, apparently, do you. Now go.”

  Maxis shook his head, stepped in close, and cupped the back of her neck. “I told you I was wrong.” He teased the hair at the top of her spine. “I came to make amends. To offer you something you’ll never find within these walls.”

  Goosebumps lifted along her exposed shoulders and her breath shallowed. “What could you possibly give me I don’t already have?”

  She couldn’t have handed him a more perfect invitation, a prime opening to lure his future mate. His heart surged and his muscles tightened. “Power.”

  Chapter 7

  Reese sat on the edge of his cot, elbows planted on his knees, and hung his head. The space between his temples throbbed, slow and heavy. Too much thinking, too little sleep, and a fat zero on what he should do next.

  “Use your own light to guide Maxis’ soul.”

  Right. Like his “light” cast a big enough glow to work with. Kind of hard for anything bright to get through all the hate he felt for Maxis.

  He massaged the tight muscles around his healing wound and circled his arm to loosen the stiff joint. What was he missing? How could the spiritu possibly think he had any influence where the malran was concerned?

  A rumble sounded beyond the door, and heavy, confident footsteps clipped against the stone.

  Reese stood. He pumped his fists, open and shut, over and over. His heart worked double rhythm, but his gut was steady, braced for whatever lay ahead. This was it. Ready or not, he’d face Ramsay and give him the truth. His old friend deserved that much.

  The latch echoed and the cell door opened. Ramsay’s shadowed form filled the entry.

  The back of Reese’s neck tightened to the point of pain, but he snapped to attention. “Ramsay.”

  “Wrong brother.” Eryx stepped from the darkness, the cell’s candlelight glinting off the royal torc at his neck and the metal beads holding his braids in place.

  Maybe they didn’t need his information any more. If Eryx was here to give his sentence, then the
re was nothing left but—

  Galena walked out from behind her brother, and Reese’s lungs emptied on a whoosh. She clasped her hands loosely in front of her, a formal pose best suited for strangers. Or detachment. “Eryx has agreed to hear what you have to say.”

  Eryx crossed his arms and dipped his chin, a non-verbal warning of the deadliest variety. He might be Ramsay’s twin, but the warrior garb of silver drast and black leather pants sent his intimidation factor off the charts. “Galena says you’re ready to talk. That true?”

  Reese jerked a nod, his throat too clamped to speak.

  The soft flutter of the torch’s flame beyond his cell and a muffled creak from the castle above filled the silence.

  Eryx motioned toward someone in the hall to enter.

  Two warriors bustled in carrying simple ladder-back chairs.

  Galena perched on the edge of hers, her posture so rigid his hand twitched to rub the back of her neck.

  Eryx spun his around, straddled the back, and pointed at the cot. “Sit.”

  Reese edged back until his knees met the cot, Galena’s steady, patient gaze so heavy he could barely take a breath. He didn’t want her here. Not for this.

  “Got a lot on my plate, Reese. For whatever reason, Galena thinks I need to be the one to hear what you’ve got to say. I’m doing her a favor, but I’m not in the mood to screw around. We clear?”

  She went for Eryx on purpose? Why?

  “We clear?” Eryx snapped.

  Reese forced himself to look at Eryx. “Clear.”

  All he had to do was start simple. The basics. The location of the training grounds, Maxis’ underground hideout deep in the mountains of Asshur, the coordinates Eryx’s men would need. The words rolled off his tongue, one secret after another, Galena steady and unmoving in his periphery.

  “Any prisoners at those locations?” Eryx said.

  Reese blinked, mentally stumbling from his trance-like fog. Right. The spiritu had mentioned a captive, one special to the new malress. “I don’t know of any prisoners. Maxis kept everyone on a need to screw basis, but if he’s got one, the hideout in Asshur would be the best bet. Hard to scan with the rock density and even more difficult to locate on sight. Only those closest to him know where to find it.”

  Not so much as a twitch from Eryx. No hint of his thoughts or emotions. “And you’ll corroborate this information with your memories?”

  Reese’s mouth dried up and his heart kicked. He tried to swallow, but his tongue seemed stuck to the roof of his mouth. “I will, but I need to share something else.”

  He glanced at Galena. She’d never view him the same. How could she? How could anyone? He coughed around the catch his throat. “My mother fled the rebellion ranks when she learned she was pregnant with me. She wasn’t mated, but was afraid the man she lived with would kill her if he learned she was pregnant with another man’s son.”

  Galena perked up, her voice soft and curious. “Why would he kill her?”

  Adrenaline rushed so thick his body felt twice its normal weight, and a sharp steady pain pressed behind his sternum. “He was abusive, the type of man who viewed women as little more than cattle. They’d already had a son together. From his perspective, her job was to satisfy his physical needs and see to their child. That was it. For her to come up pregnant with another man’s child would have been one thing, but to come up pregnant by a human slave? That was something else. So she ran.”

  Reese focused on Eryx. Now that he’d started, he couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to. The onslaught of information burned from the inside out. “My mother never believed in the rebellion. She was trapped because of her first-born child. She risked her life to save me and raised me to do the right thing. She wanted me to fight against the rebellion, not for it.”

  Eryx frowned and curled his fingers around the top rail of the chair. “Your mom ended up in a bad place, but you being half human’s not exactly earth-shattering news. I’m not seeing how her background with the rebellion has any tie to the information I need.”

  A steady hum started in the back of Reese’s head and the air around him thickened, weighting his shoulders. “It’s important because of who my mother was.”

  Praise the Great One, he hoped he did this right. He took a deep breath. “Maxis Steysis is my brother.”

  Eryx and Galena gaped.

  Reese propped his elbows on his knees and let his head fall forward. It didn’t matter now. It was out. Done. And strangely, the truth hadn’t stung as bad as he’d thought, a good chunk of the emotional dead weight in his soul gone. How the information would serve the spiritu’s purpose he couldn’t fathom. The only thing good he and Maxis held in common was their mother. He’d have killed Maxis himself if she hadn’t made him promise to protect him.

  Wait. Maybe that was it. His mother had loved Maxis. Reese had wished him dead over and over since the day he’d fully understood what the relationship meant, but their mother loved him. Had hurt and prayed for him every day after she’d escaped. Had Maxis ever known love? Would it make a difference?

  “Half brother.”

  Galena’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. “What?”

  “He’s your half brother,” she repeated, glaring at Eryx. “It’s not a crime, it’s genetics.”

  Eryx kept his expression blank, the only tell a slight tilt to his head. “That’s what you wouldn’t share with Ramsay. You were afraid of what we’d think.”

  A full, pent up breath huffed out, and the fear and doubt he’d held captive burst free with it. He slumped against the crystal wall, exhausted. “You. Ramsay. The other warriors. If I’d shared it, no one would have trusted me. How could anyone believe Maxis’ brother would have their back in battle? Or believe I wasn’t there to feed information to the rebellion? If I wanted to serve, I didn’t have a choice.”

  “We always have a choice.” No sympathy from Eryx, just conviction. “Some are more difficult to carry than others. It sounds like your mother understood that.”

  Reese straightened. That was it. The different path the spiritu had told him to find. “I need to ask you for something.”

  Eryx huffed an incredulous laugh. “You think you’re in a position to barter?”

  “No.” He needed to watch what he said. It was one thing to drop his history for the malran, but another thing entirely to expect him to buy a mission from some unknown being. “My choices were wrong. I knew it the day I blocked Ramsay. I knew it watching rebellion men die for a cause I wanted nothing to do with. I’ll pay the price. Willingly. All I want is a chance to make things right before I do.”

  Eryx sat up taller in his chair, eyes narrowed and wary. “How so?”

  “Let me lead you through the tunnels to Maxis, maybe act as a distraction while you look for the prisoner you’re after.”

  “You realize that sounds more like a trap for me and my men veiled as a shot at redemption.” Eryx smirked. “I might not be ready to rip your head off like Ramsay is, but that doesn’t make me an idiot.”

  “That’s not what this is about,” he said.

  Galena studied him, a wary uncertainty coloring her expression. If he wasn’t reaching her, then he’d never win Eryx’s approval.

  Fuck. What the hell could he say that wouldn’t sound insane?

  “The truth.” A swift answer, wind chimes and laughter behind it.

  Clio.

  Okay. The truth. He focused on Eryx. “It killed my mom that she left Maxis behind. She saw what Evanora’s hatred was doing to him. There was no way to get Maxis out without the whole lot of them following, but she could keep at least one child safe. I want the chance to let Maxis know our mother regretted leaving him. To see if it might make him let go of, or at least revisit, his need for vengeance.”

  Eryx’s laugh ricocheted through the cell. “You know that’s got a snowball’s chance in histus of happening, right?”

  “I do. But if it takes him off his curr
ent path, then it’s worth trying. If Maxis balks, I’ll kill him myself. If not for my race, then for what he did to Phybe.”

  The two stared at him, Eryx tight-lipped and Galena openly stunned.

  “I wanted to serve you and Ramsay because I wanted to balance the scales for my mother,” he said. “For her to die knowing at least one of her sons stayed to the good. I screwed up with my choices. Let me try to make it right.”

  “Eryx—”

  Eryx glowered at Galena.

  She clamped her lips tight and ducked her head.

  The silence scratched and grated.

  The musty dankness filled Reese’s lungs until he thought he’d choke. “He killed Phybe on purpose.”

  “As a distraction,” Eryx said.

  “No, as a message. To me. Maxis blackmailed me into forming a link with him, threatening to share our relationship with others if I didn’t. When he found Phybe at his house with you and the rest of your men, he realized I’d helped her, which brought you straight to his door. Killing her was his way of saying I’m next.”

  “Then you can’t leave zeolite,” Galena said. “He’ll kill you the minute he sees you.”

  Something inside him warmed. Even in the darkened cell, her light and goodness shone on his soul. A benediction he didn’t deserve. “Galena, I’m dead either way. Life in here will be a slow, torturous death. My only other options are death at your brother’s order for treason, or to die trying to save the soul of my mother’s other son. Which would you choose?”

  Her shoulders dropped and her hands tightened in her lap.

  Reese stood and motioned to the hallway beyond. “Take me out long enough to offer my memories and my link. As a Shantos male, you’re as capable of killing me via link as Maxis is. If at any time you sense treachery on my part, you can strike.”

  “Anything else?” Eryx said.

  “I’d ask one last night in my mother’s homestead to say good-bye.”